BLASTS FROM THE PAST
In the 1960s and again in 1975 Pearl Bailey starred in an all-Black production of Hello Dolly. Someone has posted one of the numbers from that show, this is what big time Broadway looked like forty or so years ago. Don't know but I'm guessing this is the 1975 version; the 1968 production co-starred Cab Calloway. How great would that have been?

This is my favorite TV blog - Ken Levine's. He offers a great suggestion to the networks - test your pilots online.

Burger King is dumping that grotesque King character they have. I always questioned whether that was a winning campaign or not.

THIS 'N' THAT
I know a lot of people will be thrilled to hear that AMC and Sony made a last minute deal to keep "Breaking Bad" alive for two more years. But then there's this: Sons of Anarchy" creator Kurt Sutter last week ripped Weiner and his Emmy-winning show Mad Men for costing AMC too much money, thusly slashing the budgets for both "Breaking Bad" and "The Walking Dead."

Kevin Butler writes: Wednesday September 7, 2011 will mark the 50th anniversary of the debut of the UPA Dick Tracy TV cartoon show on WPIX TV in NYC. It was on Thursday evening channel 11 aired "The Dick Tracy Cartoon Show" (or "The Dick Tracy Show") weekday evenings from 5:00 to 5:30 P.m. EST. Joe Bolton, who had already finished his stint as "Officer Joe" on "The Three Stooges Funhouse" the previous evening, was promoted to the rank of "Police Chief" and he would entertain and inform visitors to his police station with games, songs, stories, craftmaking, hobbies, informational segments and interviews with guest performers and personalities - between reruns of the Dick Tracy films.Read more about this anniversary here!

BLOG RERUN: JUDGE FOR YOURSELF
When television first began it made perfect sense to transplant primetime network radio programs into the hot new medium. Many network radio stars made that transition - Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Jack Benny - but one of radio's biggest talents, Fred Allen, failed to make the TV grade. Allen's freewheeling, satirical radio show, Allen's Alley (also known as The Fred Allen Show), really was one of the funniest programs on the air in the 1940s, I would say comparable to The Daily Show today.

Here's a 1945 Fred Allen radio broadcast from the end of World War II (with a young Frank Sinatra as guest, imagining what his career will be like in 1995) that includes a prime example of the Jack Benny - Fred Allen feud that was a highpoint of both of their careers.

A lot of ink has been spilled over the decades to try to explain Fred Allen's inability to translate to the box but I'm not sure there ever was a definitive reason. He had health problems in the fifties, that was one major factor, then there's the fickle public. Who knows, if he had lived longer than 1956 maybe he might have found the right format.

He initially tried bringing his popular radio format Allen's Alley to the tube but that was a no go. Here's part of one of Allen's TV forays called Judge For Yourself, a game show that allowed the witty host to verbally spar with the contestants. It worked for Groucho but then Groucho had that unmistakable leer that made all of his quips sound like double entendres even in the rare instances when they weren't. Then again, Judge For Yourself gets bogged down by a needlessly clumsy format.

A subsequent show, Fred Allen's Sketchbook, also fizzled so Fred Allen settled into a regular slot on the game show What's My Line in 1954 where, presumably, he could have stayed for a decade or two had he not died of a heart attack two years later.

But Fred Allen got the last word on television, "You know, television is called a new medium, and I have discovered why they call it a medium — because nothing is well done." He was vociferous in his view that TV was for, "people who haven't anything to do to watch people who can't do anything." I believe he also originally quipped what I've been saying for years: "Television isn't for watching it's for appearing on." Touche.

CLASSIC TV AND OTHER STUFFWe have a new Superman, or will in two years - and he has a cool new costume. Naturally it's dark as is the style of the day. Is anyone else reminded of the Superman model kit of the 1960s?

Kevin Butler writes about the loss of another local TV legend: Sadly Chicago, Ill. kid's TV has suffered another loss. Former WGN TV Ch. 9 musical director Bob Trendler, better known to "Windy City" kids as Mr. Bob, who along with his studio band provided the music for WGN's Bozo Show, has died. Trendler spent his last years at a hospice in Ellenton, Fl. He was 99 years old.

Mr. Trendler joined WGN Radio in 1935 performing with a band. He continued working for WGN Radio until he became the musical director of WGN TV when the station first went on the air in 1948.

Trendler and the studio orchestra provided musical accompaniment for many TV shows at Ch. 9. In 1961, he began his long stint with "Bozo's Circus" performing with the studio orchestra under the name of Mr. Bob. He continued in his capacity as the show's bandleader until he retired in 1975.

Trendler would return to WGN TV in 1986 for The Bozo Show's 25th anniversary tribute which was broadcast live before a live audience at Chicago's "Medinah Temple" and WGN TV's 40th anniversary tribute which aired two years later.

USA Today has an article on what a financial behemoth Batman has become. I love the super hero movies but passed on Thor, Green Lantern, Captain America and X-Men. Do want to see Captain America tho.

Actual headline: IRS: Over 1,400 Millionaires Paid No Income Taxes In 2009. Geez, I paid a fortune and I'm dead poor!

One of my fave shows of the 1970s was The Gong Show. There was something nutty and weird about this ersatz game show, but for me it only worked because it came on at noon. The nighttime version of The Gong Show just didn't make it with me. Heck, the show was so popular at one point there was even a movie made that stiffed at the box office and has rarely been seen since. But for a sweet summer of my youth, away from home for the first time working, sitting around with my friends having lunch, laughing at The Gong Show, was a nice moment in time. I mean, what were we supposed to make of something like this?!?

THE GREATEST
Louis Prima the most dynamic Vegas performer of all? Maybe. He's been largely ignored but was rediscovered in the '90s. But everyone plays the same Prima songs, they ignore his later period when his entire band, other than Sam Butera, quit all at once to start a musical comedy trapeze act for Vegas. Really, I didn't believe it either. Sam put together a crack combo and they hit the road with vocalist Gia Maione, who took over after Prima and Keely Smith split up. The sound was part Jazz, part pop, part fusion, part funk. It was a bit wierd but Louis Prima had fallen out of favor by the 1970s so the fact he was switching things up late in life said a lot about his artistic integrity.

Unfortunately You Tube doesn't have any of those later sounds but here's Louis, Sam Butera and The Witnesses with Gia Maione from The Dean Martin Show in 1967.

DON RICKLES
I've been posting daily over at facebook.com/beyondbook - videos related to Dean Martin, Sinatra or old school show biz. Good for a smile a day at least! This is something I posted today - Don Rickles was given an extended period of time to work his magic on a celebrity filled studio back in 1967, it was the comic's first big break in terms of television.

Remember the Happy Days lawsuit? This from today's news: Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on "The Dukes of Hazzard" — also known as character actor James Best of Hickory, N.C. — filed suit this week seeking back payments from Time Warner for using his image on merchandise ranging from Christmas ornaments to trash cans. Best says he supplied a dog from the pound that joined the cast in the third season and he wants 50% of the dog's royalties as well. You have to wonder how much Dukes of Hazzard merch there is out there now.

Battleship, based on the Milton Bradley game, coming to a theater near you. Hollywood really has run out of ideas. Really and truly.

One of the better cartoons of the 1980s Thunder Cats has returned on Cartoon Network with new animated adventures and the early reviews are good.

Poor Dave Chapelle is getting press for bombing on stage the other night. Funny what constitutes news these days. I wonder if he misses that 50 million dollar deal he walked away from? Turns out maybe he does - rumor is he's shopping a proposal for a new series.

SUNDAY FUN
I posted a clip of Foster Brooks on The Dean Martin Roasts over at Beyond Our Wildest Dreams and it got me thinking about that phenomenally funny comedian. He made quite a splash as a guest on variety shows of the late 1960s - 1970s, I saw him first when he was a regular on The New Bill Cosby Show where he played a highly inebriated CBS network executive. By that point his drunken act was becoming familiar but, at first, studio audiences and other performers didn't know if he was really bombed or not. Here's a great example from a Steve Allen program:

Here's something else I'll be posting on Facebook. Some time ago I shared excerpts from interviews for the book, mostly stuff I couldn't use but found interesting anyway. Here's a bit from a talk with musician extraordinary Tim Fowlar who conducted for Donald O'Connor and Robert Goulet for years and years. In 1976 and 1977 Tim and The Golddiggers spent 6 weeks touring the East coast in the crazy Roy Radin Vaudeville revue. In this clip he reminisces about "the girls" (meaning Maria & Linda and The Golddiggers), Frank Fontaine aka Crazy Guggenheim, and Ronny Spector. I swear if this book is considered to be any good I'm going to Tim to do his story. Fascinating guy!

Original cast members of the Batman TV series Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar reunited at Comic Con in San Diego. What the heck, they have nothing else to do. I met Adam West at a professional function once. He was a bit weird. More fun was meeting George Barris next to the Batmobile he designed for the show, what a lovely gentleman he is. You can see the groovy vehicles he designed at his web site - that's ART to me!

RAT PACK GOLDDIGGERS?
Hey, if you like The Rat Pack then by all means join up with facebook.com/beyondbook - for my new production, Beyond Our Wildest Dreams about two great gals who toured and used to be on the Dean Martin shows as part of The Golddiggers are sharing memories, photos and video clips. The story revolves around two devout Christians who joined Dean Martin's fabulous girl group in 1973 when producer Greg Garrison fired all of the previous performers and started over again with 8 young beauties. Available in a couple of weeks with around 350 pictures, the story is entirely told in the words of the people who were there.

Here are some of the highlights from BEYOND OUR WILDEST DREAMS:

The unusual way these young Italian-Hungarian gals from Philadelphia grew up - no milk, no meat, no sugar, no bread. Ever.

Barely out of High School, despite having been out on only a date or two, these devout Catholics joined Dean Martin's Golddiggers
for TV, Las Vegas shows and touring all over the country.

What was Dean REALLY like? Was he the drunken womanizer he played on TV?

Appearing with Dean in Las Vegas during the booming 1970s, opening night at the MGM Grand.

Working with the legendary Louis Prima on his last tour.

In Vegas and on tour they appeared with Jerry Vale, Bobby Goldsboro, Red Skelton, Steve & Eydie and others.

Missing by a few weeks being the victims of the deadliest mob hit in history.

On the road with Milton Berle, Donald O'Connor and dirty old man George Jessel in the Roy Radin Vaudeville Revue (Roy Radin was the victim in the notorious Cotton Club Murder - he was born on Friday the thirteenth, went missing on Friday the thirteenth, his body was found on Friday the thirteenth with thirteen bullet holes in him. He was also head of the Church of Satan, nothing of which the girls knew at the time, of course!).

A near death experience with Bob Hope.

And, of course, working with Frank Sinatra and Dean together for the last time they got together for more than a night or two - including dates at the Sabre Room in Chicago, The Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, NJ, and the mobbed up Westchester Premier Theatre in New York.

GREAT 1960's TV WATCHING
Gomer Pyle, USMC
I haven't seen this show since I was a kid and I wasn't that impressed
with it then - but I find it hilarious now. What makes it work so well
is the snappy delivery of Frank Sutton who played Sgt. Carter, performances
that are spot-on and flat out funny. In case you didn't know, most of
the best writers and producers of The Andy Griffith Show moved
over to Gomer Pyle which explains why the show is so crisp.

Gunsmoke
50th Anniversary Edition
I Netflixed this one - so I don't have all the discs or the packaging.
I wasn't even sure why I rented it, Gunsmoke is one of those
shows that ran hot and cold. Some episodes are inspiring, beautifully
directed television but could too often become pedestrian.
What struck me about the first disc were the two episode commentaries
by Ed Asner and Bruce Dern. Dern was a guest on the episode starring Bette
Davis and his comments about working in TV in the 1960s (and with Miss
Davis) is incredibly insightful. There are lots of other extras as well
- now I discover the DVD collection was produced by Paul Brownstein, which
I suspected when I saw this rich mix of extras (the commentaries are just
the tip of the iceberg). They don't call him the 'Raider of the Lost Archives'
for nothing. Now I'm looking forward to experiencing the rest of this
DVD package.

Hootenanny
I keep coming back to this DVD collection. If you're a fan of world, bluegrass,
country, roots of rock, gospel or folk music this is a must-have. Sublime
from start to finish. You can put it on and play it like a CD.